Blue Jackets send Rick Nash to Rangers

The New York Rangers have a new star forward.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have one fewer headache and three more quality players.

The Blue Jackets finally met captain Rick Nash’s midseason request and dealt him on Monday along with a third-round pick and a minor league defenseman to the Rangers for centers Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov, defenseman Tim Erixon and a first-round pick next year.

The deal gives the Rangers a big, sturdy right wing to add to their core of solid young players and also helps them counter moves made by other Eastern Conference powers this off-season.

The Blue Jackets, meanwhile, ended months of speculation about what they would do after Nash went to management in January and asked to be traded.

The NHL Players Assn. confirmed that it had filed a grievance June 30 over the Ducks’ June 22 trade of defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky to the New York Islanders with the aim of voiding the deal. Visnovsky and the Players Assn. contend that he was not allowed to invoke a no-trade clause in his contract. The validity of that clause is at the center of the dispute.

The clause was part of a contract extension he signed in 2007, while still with the Kings, but he was traded to Edmonton before the no-trade clause could take effect. He was later traded by Edmonton to the Ducks. He has one year left on that contract with a salary-cap hit of $5.6 million and a salary of $3 million.

“The Anaheim Ducks were informed of Lubomir Visnovsky’s ‘No Move’ contract prior to the announcement of the trade at the NHL draft,” Neil Sheehy, Visnovsky’s agent, said Monday. “The issues must be settled at the CBA level and therefore I have no further comment. My job is to enforce a player’s CBA rights.”

—Helene Elliott

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The Nashville Predators signed veteran forward Sergei Kostitsyn to a two-year, $6-million contract.

Kostitsyn, who’s been in the NHL since 2007, had 43 points in 75 games last season, one year after leading the Predators in goals with 23 and tying for the team lead in points with 50.

ETC.

Notre Dame’s Rees pleads guilty

Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees apologized to police, the school and fans after pleading guilty to misdemeanor resisting law enforcement and illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor in connection with his arrest outside an off-campus party in the spring.

The 20-year-old junior quarterback was sentenced to 50 hours of community service and 11 months of probation. He also must write a letter of apology to officers involved in his May 3 arrest in South Bend, Ind. He was given a suspended sentence of 30 days in jail.

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Michigan suspended running back Fitzgerald Toussaint indefinitely after he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

Saline (Mich.) police Det. Don Lupi said Toussaint was stopped for a traffic violation in Ann Arbor on Saturday night. He was arrested on suspicion of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and taken to the Saline Police Department, where Lupi said he tested over the legal limit during a breath test.

Toussaint, a redshirt junior this upcoming season, rushed for 1,041 yards in 2011, finishing second on the team behind quarterback Denard Robinson.

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The Insight Bowl has become the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl under a new sponsorship agreement.

The change was announced by the Valley of the Sun Bowl Foundation, which operates the postseason contest played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

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The Oakland Raiders traded receiver Louis Murphy to the Carolina Panthers for an undisclosed conditional draft choice.

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Miami Dolphins receiver Chad Ochocinco has legally changed his name back to the original Chad Johnson.